The President of the U.S. recently asserted that the 1964 Civil Rights movement caused white Americans to be “very badly treated” and become “real victims of discrimination.” This claim aligns with the ongoing political narrative that encourages white men in the workplace to sue employers over perceived discrimination.
This narrative is not new, though the President’s views on race have become less nuanced over time. His history of racial controversy dates back 52 years to a 1973 civil rights lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice against him and his father for violations of the Fair Housing Act. More recently, his attitudes are evident in his references to majority-Black or -Brown nations as “shithole countries” and his preference for immigrants from majority-white countries.
Loss of Privilege is Not Oppression
When the dominant group in any culture experiences the equalization of rights for others, they may feel restricted or inconvenienced by the required behavioral changes.
This feeling is rooted in the discomfort of losing an unearned systemic advantage, not in the experience of true discrimination. The Civil Rights movement sought to expand justice for those systematically denied it, not to systematically oppress others. The movement was a necessary social and political transformation and misrepresenting it as an attack on the dominant group distorts its historical purpose.
The False Promise of “True Meritocracy”
The strategy of attacking non-discrimination and equity programs (such as DEI) while championing a “true meritocracy” is a ruse based on the false premise that the social and economic playing field is already level.
What to Do When Someone Feels “Reverse Discrimination”
When a white colleague expresses feeling discriminated against due to equity efforts, try to gently reframe the conversation based on the understanding that the discomfort they feel is real, but it may not be discrimination. Also, it may be that what they are feeling is actually connected to the economic discrimination that people from all stripes in the U.S. feel. If they’re interested, you can suggest that the Civil Rights movement was about expanding justice for those systematically denied it their entire lives, and that, differently than them, the disadvantages they confront are a daily occurrence.
A true meritocracy cannot exist until the pervasive effects of historical inequality—such as wealth gaps, unequal access to education, and unconscious bias in hiring—are neutralized. Programs promoting non-discrimination are the essential prerequisite for merit to be genuinely and equally recognized. To criticize them is to advocate for maintaining an unequal status quo under the false pretense of fairness.
Originally publilshed in by the Inclusion Allies Coalition, January, 2026
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